Comment on VW introduces monthly subscription to increase car power
tal@lemmy.today 23 hours ago
According to a survey from S&P Global, some customers may be put off by the cost of in-car subscriptions for features such as connectivity, or by basic functions being split into paid tiers.
I don’t have any particular objection to that. They can choose whatever pricing model they want, and it’s just another number for the spreadsheet in valuing whatever they put on offer. However, I rather suspect that whatever DRM they have on this ties one more-closely to maintaining an Internet connection between the car and auto manufacturer, which I do care about from a privacy standpoint.
And I wonder what happens to one’s subscription if one’s car is no longer able to talk to current cell towers and thus the car can no longer validate that the user has paid the bill this month. Cars that relied 2G cell network connectivity in the past lost their network connectivity when the cell networks took that down in the US. Maybe the feature is just gone forever. Maybe the manufacturer decides to be nice and just perma-unlock the functionality. shrugs
melroy@kbin.melroy.org 23 hours ago
The moment I bought my id3 they never informed me about this subscription model. Soon I also need to pay if I want to keep my app working for my car, like enabling the airco via the app.
I already paid around 14000-15000 euros for this car. And now I suddenly also need to pay subscriptions? It's not only a subscription for 'increase power'.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
15k? Price crashed like that? When I asked the price in 2020 they told me 45k and I laughed for weeks after that
The fact that they pay the sim card data plan for only the first three years from purchase was known from the beginning. I’m ok with paying but not the price they’re asking. They’re using a $10/year iot sim card for remote access, but want $150/year from the customer? LOL get fucked I would never pay that.
PS: how the remote air control works? I tried the Peugeot one and
Allowed activation only if battery was over 50% which is a stupid artificial limitations
Literally took 10 minutes to boot and 8 minutes to send the activation signal to the car. In that time I could go to activate it manually
melroy@kbin.melroy.org 10 hours ago
Sorry my bad. It was indeed 45000 euros. It's insane.